After leaving Slab City, CA we spent about 2 weeks in the San Diego area doing sightseeing and visiting Legoland with the kids.  We then went to the desert to relax in the warm weather of Desert Hot Springs, CA.  We stayed about 2 weeks there and visited Joshua Tree National Park for a couple days.  We were happy to spent some time with the Valentine family during our stay.  After leaving the Palm Springs area we drove to Williams, AZ which is one of the closest campgrounds to the Grand Canyon.  We spent most of that time working but did make a quick visit over to the canyon for one day.  We left Williams and then went to the Sedona, AZ area where we stayed for about two weeks visiting several state parks and National Monuments.  We then left the Sedona area and went to stay on the rim of the Grand Canyon where we would be close to the canyon to do more sightseeing.  We stayed on the rim of the canyon for about 4 nights.

While at the Grand Canyon we made the unexpected decision to head to Las Vegas to the National Hardware Show.  So we headed towards Vegas making a stop first for a few days in Bullhead City, AZ.  We then headed to Las Vegas crossing over the Hover Dam along the way.  We stayed at the KOA campground at Circus Circus which is right on the strip.  We had a great time at the Hardware Show and the kids had an even better time getting candy and free stuff from the vendors.  As for Vegas itself, well, it is not a place for kids so we were pretty glad to leave as we felt the kids had seen enough “trash”.

We left Vegas and headed to St. George, UT to visit Zion National Park.  While there we visited Zion NP for one day and then made the sudden decision that we needed to end our journey for a while.  I believe Polly and I had both been thinking about it for a short while but one day we started talking and realized that the timing was right to end the journey for now.  We knew that we would never be able to finish the rest of the US as we still had a lot left to do and see.  We also knew that our business needed our attention and we needed to head back to be able to spend quality time with it.  Also, unless you have ever traveled for a long time you may not realize just how tiring it is.  We really just wanted to stay still for a while and rest with no planning to worry about.  We then turned the motorhome east and drove for three and a half days from UT back to NC.

After being on the road for almost a year it was nice to get back home and slow down.  We spent the next several months doing the basic stuff that most everyone else does.  We have continued to home school the kids and they have been much more involved in our church youth programs.  The problem is that once you have entered into the RV lifestyle it is really hard to leave it for very long.  After a few months back we started to get the itch to leave again.  We knew that Zachary, 12,  was starting to get to the age that he would not want to go anywhere.  We also never finished the North West part of the country.

Well, to make a long story short, we sat down as a family a few weeks ago and after we where done we had made the decision to start traveling again in June.  Life is short and while it is easy to live life doing the same thing everyday it just isn’t for us.  We are not promised tomorrow and retirement may never come. Our kids are getting older and the memories we are creating will last forever.  So the end of May we are taking my mom to the beach and as soon as we get back we are heading west to try and complete the US.  We are leaving our return date completely open so we are not rushed and will simply come back when we either get tired or complete everything.  We learned a lot from the last time and hope to use that knowledge to make this journey even more enjoyable.

We will try to blog about our travels and would love to hear from all our friends.  If you are currently on the road or even considering it we look forward in hearing from you.

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We had heard a lot about Slab City over the past year and really wanted to visit the area. Slab City is a camp in the Colorado Desert in southeastern California, used by recreational vehicle owners and squatters from across North America. It takes its name from the concrete slabs and pylons that remain from the abandoned World War II base Marine Barracks Camp Dunlap there. A group of servicemen remained after the base closed, and the place has been inhabited ever since, although the number of residents has declined since the mid 1980s.

Several thousand campers, many of them retired, use the site during the winter months. These “snowbirds” stay only for the winter, before migrating north in the spring to cooler climate. The temperatures during the summer are unforgiving; nonetheless, there is a group of around 150 permanent residents who live in the Slabs all year round. Most of these “Slabbers” subsist on government checks (SSI and Social Security) and have been driven to the Slabs through poverty; some of the “slabbers” also have a strong desire for freedom from the American government.

The site is both decommissioned and uncontrolled, and there is no charge for parking. The camp has no electricity, no running water or other services. Many campers use generators or solar panels to generate electricity. There is a library, church, and entertainment stage.

One of the biggest attractions at Slab City is Salvation Mountain created by Leonard Knight. The mountain is 50 feet tall and 150 feet wide and made of adobe clay. Leonard’s intent was to spend a couple days and create a small monument to show his love for God but it turned into something much larger. You really must visit the official website and read the inspiring story of Leonard Knight and his love for God and to tell the world that “God is Love”. We had the great pleasure of having Leonard give us a personal tour of his mountain. You can tell he is so excited to share his creation. Leonard lives in front of the mountain in an old truck (see pictures below). He has lived there for 29 years with no electric, running water, sewer or anything. He works on the mountain everyday but is happy to stop to give you a tour. He says his favorite thing is talking to people and having them take pictures. It is estimated that he has put over 100,000 gallons of paint on the mountain.

I left Salvation Mountain inspired to determine what my passion in life is. Slab City is one of those places where you don’t really want to live but you admire the people that do. It is a simple, cheap life where you are not faced with many of the worlds issues. I hope to revisit Slab City in the future and actually get to camp a few days.  Thanks again for the Bogers for meeting us there!

Our next stop is Julian, CA for a week and get ready for some activities in the San Diego area.  We took a ton of pictures and you can see some below!

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While walking around the ruins you have to imagine the hard life these people led.  They had massive farming in the area and had long, long trenches for irrigation.  We were told they did not have any metal tools.  It is also believed they didn’t have the wheel either so everything was done by hand.  I don’t think most people can imagine that there were complete active communities in the US so far back.  There are a lot of these types of National Monuments out west and we hope to hit more of them.

We stayed here a few hours before heading south of Phoenix to Carrabbas for a late Valentine’s dinner.  We only stayed 2 nights in the area so there wasn’t much time for anything else.

Next stop will be Slab City and Salvation Mountain in CA.

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Our first destination was the town of Tombstone, AZ.  Tombstone is an old wild west mining town that makes you feel like you are back in the days of lawlessness and old movies.  You have probably heard of the “O.K. Corral”, “The Bird Cage Theatre”, “Wyatt Earp”, “Doc Holliday” just to name a few.  You can read the entire history at this site.  For the most part it is just a tourist trap.  We only spent about 2 hours here and since we don’t spend money on tourist stuff much there really wasn’t a lot to do.  I wouldn’t make a special trip here but if you are in the area it is a neat place to walk around for a few hours.

We only took one day and went into Tucson.  In Tucson we walked the historic walking trail to see some of the sites.  Tucson is such a beautiful area with all the brightly colored homes.  I think Polly and I have decided we would like to have one of these one day.  For lunch we ate at the El Charro Café which claims to be the birth place of the Chimichanga which is my favorite Mexican dish.  The Legendary Monica Flin, who opened her El Charro Café in 1922, is well‐known as the originator of the Chimichanga. While frying her now famous El Charro ground beef tacos, she accidentally dropped a burro into the frying pan and when the oil splashed up she was about to lash out a common Spanish cuss word starting with “Ch”, but because she was amongst her young nieces and nephews, changed it to “Chimichanga”, the equivalent of “thingamajig”.  It was good but not quite as good as our old favorite Mexican place back home.

Our last stop was Saguaro National Park.  When you think of Arizona you think of the cactus.  The saguaro catus is the well know tall cactus with “arms” that you see in all the AZ brochures.  Since 1933 the saguaro cactus has been protected by the park.  The park is in the Sonoran Desert with temperatures commonly climbing above 100 degrees and gets less than 12” of rain a year.  Many of the saguaros can suck up as much as 200 gallons of water which is enough to last then an entire year.  Many of the saguaros we saw were over 150 years old.  Of course being from the east coast we had never seen real tall cacti like this so it was a treat.  While in the park we did about a 3.5 mile hike through the cacti (was suppose to be less but we missed a turn).  The kids also got their Junior Ranger badges.

Once again another great time.  The weather was mostly nice and certainly much better than NC.  We would certainly like to come back here again in the winter.

Next stop will be north of Tucson near the town of Casa Grande, AZ and the Case Grande Ruins.

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The main purpose for visiting the area was the White Sands park.  White Sands is a 275 square mile gypsum sand desert.  It is the largest gypsum dune field in the world.  The gypsum that forms the white sand was deposited at the bottom of a shallow sea covering this area 250 million years ago.  Eventually turned into stone, these gypsum-bearing marine deposits were uplifted into a giant dome 70 million years ago when the Rocky Mountains formed.  Then 10 million years ago the center of this dome started to collapse, creating the Tularosa Basin.  Rain and snow in the mountains dissolve gypsum from the rocks and carry it into the Tularosa Basin.  The water with the gypsum gets trapped in the basin and turns to crystals.  These crystals then dry and fall apart into sand.  The wind then blows this sand into the large dunes you see in White Sands.

One of the best parts about White Sands is the ability to slide down the dunes.  So we purchased sleds and hit the dunes.  We all took our turns going down with many roll-overs at the bottom.  The sand is much finer than beach sand so it was nice and soft.  Also, since the sand is so white and bright (much whiter than beach sand) we got a lot of sun during the day. Even Bella had a good time running in the sand and digging holes.  While at the park the kids got another Junior Ranger badge.

Once again another fun stop and great park.  We will continue to do National Parks as we travel.  Now we head toward AZ for a week or so.

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The caverns are also the home of thousands of bats in the summer.  These Mexican free-tailed bat’s live in Mexico in the winter then head to Carlsbad Caverns in the summer.  Every night they leave the caverns by the thousands in search for food.  These bats are very important to the area as they eat tons of bugs.  Later that night we went to Pizza Inn for a little Valentine’s day dinner with the kids.

The next day we went to the Guadalupe Mountains National Park.  The Guadalupe Mountains are part of one of the finest examples of an ancient marine fossil reef on Earth.  The mountains formed 260-270 million years ago.  During this time a vast tropical ocean covered portions of Texas and New Mexico.  Over millions of years, calcareous sponges, algae, and other lime-secreting marine organisms, along with lime precipitated from the seawater, built up to form the 400-mile-long horseshoe-shaped Capital Reef.  While visiting we toured the visitor center where the kids received their Junior Ranger badges and Polly and I received our Senior Ranger badges.  We also hiked the Smith Spring Trail.

Our time in Carlsbad, NM was short but full of activities.  Now off to White Sands National Monument for a few days.

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While in New Braunfels we mostly worked and home schooled but did get a little time to do a few activities.  The RV park had a really nice swimming pool with slide that we were dying to use.  The problem is that the water was about 45 degrees and it was freezing.  So we did what any smart family would do we put on our swim suits and went in.  The water was so cold it took your breath away when you jumped in.  We lasted about 30 seconds and that was it.  Off to the hot tub we went.  We also played basketball which was really fun. I must say that was one of the best times we had had in a while.  Sometimes doing something crazy can be lots of fun.

We also took a day and went to eat at the Salt Lick outside of Austin.  I had eaten there once before on a trip to Austin and wanted the family to try it.  Zachary calls it his new favorite place to eat.  After eating we went and took a tour of the state capital building.  We took a guided tour and went to were the Senate and Representatives meet which was neat.  We also learned more history about Texas while visiting the capital.

About the only other thing we did was drive to about 10 stores looking an electric heater.  I guess they don’t sell heaters much in south Texas after January.  We finally found 2 returned ones at Lowe’s which we ended up taking back because they didn’t work.

After a week in New Braunfels we went to San Antonio, TX to meet up with the Valentine family on Saturday.  On Sunday we went to the market district and walked through the shops then we met some of Polly’s relatives for lunch at Mi Tierra Café & Bakery.  Polly had not seen them for years and since they lived in Corpus Christi they were nice enough to drive to San Antonio to meet us.  That night we watched the Super Bowl and had a little party while cheering for the Saints!  After just leaving New Orleans we were pretty excited.

Later that week we went to see the site of the Alamo and also do the River Walk which was near.  We also visited the Mission San Jose and did the Junior Ranger program with the kids.  The rest of the week was spent with the kids playing with the Valentine kids.  It is really nice to see the kids get a chance to have quality play time with other kids.  We also enjoy hanging out with “grown-ups” too.

On Friday we said goodbye to San Antonio and headed west for the long journey to our next stop Carlsbad, NM.

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The drive was uneventful but much cooler than the previous week. After a stop at Walmart to stock up on groceries we arrived in Westwego, Louisiana just around sunset. The GPS tried to instruct us to make a sharp left turn into the entrance of the Bayou Segnette State Park Campground. Due to this mishap we had no choice but to drive down to the next intersection to do a u-turn.  If you are driving a normal vehicle a u-turn is no big deal but driving a 40’ motor home towing a car makes this driving procedure slightly more difficult. Brian was able to make the u-turn miss a road sign and get back into the right lane with no problems.  We arrived at the campground and found our spot as the sun was setting. The campground was located about 20 minutes from the city by car or 40 minutes by ferry which made it one of the closest state parks to New Orleans.

After getting setup we visited our new friends, the Valentines family, to plan our visit into New Orleans the next day. We left the campground around 10:00 am the next morning to catch the ferry to visit New Orleans.  The ferry ride was a little windy but the kids enjoyed watching the barges as the passed along the river.  Once we arrived in New Orleans we were able to see the New Orleans Saints fans getting ready for the big game later in the day. The kids enjoyed walking around together and visiting the Jean Lafitte National Park and learning about New Orleans from the beginning when the area was owned by the Spanish through the present including the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. New Orleans is a very history rich city and you could spend weeks learning about the history and culture of the city.  The kids enjoyed making a native boat, watching a historical account of New Orleans and listening to jazz music in the national park visitor’s center.

There were so many choices for lunch and we finally found a sandwich shop that we later learned had been a long standing breakfast and lunch spot for locals and tourist.  We had lunch at Johnny’s where we enjoyed a Shrimp Po’boy with Cajun fries, although we could have selected alligator, chicken, or oysters for our sandwich. Everything that was served was fried except the gumbo and you could chose either breakfast or lunch until closing time which was 3:00 pm daily.  Johnny’s has been serving breakfast and lunch in the French Quarter since 1950, and it is now being run by the third generation of the De Grusha family, making it the oldest family owned po-boy  restaurant in New Orleans . This landmark in the French Quarter has only a bout 30 tables and people line up out the door to experience the variety of po-boy sandwiches and homemade side dishes.

After lunch we continued walking along the streets of New Orleans and kids were able to catch some beads that were being tossed from balconies above the streets of the French Quarter. The French Quarter was crowded with people showing off their Saints jerseys and other attire and getting an early start “partying” before the game. Our afternoon snack consisted of beignets and coffee at Café De Monde which has been at the same location since 1862. Café Du Monde is open 24 hours a day serving Café Au Lait (coffee mixed half and half with hot milk) and hot Beignets (French doughnuts), year round.  The kids really enjoyed the beignets which were covered by powdered sugar. After our snack we walked along the river back to the ferry around 3:00pm. We had fun-filled day in New Orleans and we started discussing our next visit into the city.

On Monday we went walking around the campground and got an “up close” look at an armadillo which Carson tried to touch when it walked within a few inches of him sitting on the ground. We also learned about scaling catfish from a local fisherman who had two in his bucket. The kids enjoyed playing on the playground and playing Lego rockband with their friends.

On Wednesday, we decided to get up early and make one last trip into New Orleans. On our way out we stopped by the front office to see if we could extend our stay through Saturday, since we were supposed to be leaving on Thursday. We were fortunate to be able to extend the stay but his involved moving to another site, so we packed up everything for the short move, made a stop by the dump station and then moved across the street from the Valentines. After all this moving our early morning start for New Orleans ended up taking a couple of hours we decided to eat lunch before going into the city.  So on our way into the city we stopped at Copeland’s for lunch before going into the city for a less crowded look around the city.  Copeland’s was a restaurant that we discovered in Atlanta on a business trip and we love their Cajun and Creole dishes.  The lunch was good especially the macaroni and cheese and biscuits.

Once in New Orleans, we enjoyed a jazz concert performed by the Rangers at the New Orleans Jazz National Park.  Carson and Beca were picked to play the tambourine as the rangers played guitar and harmonica to New Orleans based jazz songs.  One more drip to Café De Monde for beignets and coffee and this time we purchased a box of mix so we could make beignets later in our travels.  On Thursday, we decided to pickup some local seafood and have a cookout with our friends the Valentine family. So on Thursday night we enjoyed grilled shrimp, grilled chicken, chips, salad, and about 4 loaves of French bread ( the six kids enjoyed the bread). After dinner we roasted marshmallows and made smores. Brian and I enjoyed sitting by the fire with Aly and Dave and talking while the kids played Wii inside the motor home.  It was beautiful clear night, with a large moon, and we heard coyotes howling in the distance.  The week went by quickly and we made plans to meet with the Valentine family, again in San Antonio in a couple of weeks. The last major adventure was washing clothes for the week, this would not be worthy of adding to the blog except for the fact that the washers and dryers were “FREE”.  We pulled almost everything we could find to wash (this included the couch covers and blankets) and spent most of Friday in the laundry room taking advantage of saving about $30 on laundry for almost the last two weeks. The laundry was next to the playground so the kids were able to play once home school in the laundry room was finished.

We had very nice dry weather while we were in Louisiana until the Friday afternoon, then it turned into a very soggy day. The rest of the day was spent planning our next stops which included New Braunfels and San Antonio, Texas.  We are hoping for warm dry weather in Texas.

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Our entry into Alabama started out rainy and it continued to rain the rest of the afternoon and night. Thursday morning we started off the day with a good morning of home school activities and then a visit to the indoor pool to work on teaching Carson to swim.  The pool was nice and the boys also enjoyed playing Play Station in the rec. room. After the pool we took a walk down to the river nature walk but we could not go down the trail since it was flooded by the Styx River.  We later found out that the road adjacent to the campground was closed due to the all the rain and the fact that the river was 11’ over the banks. On Friday we completed our week of homeschool activities and then walked down the road to evaluate the flood status.  According to the locals who live near the campground, the water had receded since it crested around noon when the water was close to 6’ high on Water World Road.  There was another weekly activity that needed to be done before leaving on Saturday for our stay at Bayou Segnette State Park in Louisiana and that was 4 loads of laundry. After laundry was completed the kids wanted to make cookies but that was not an option so we made a cake with Hershey’s chocolate frosting. After the guilt of the large piece of cake I took Bella for a walk to see if the water had receded any further since 3:00, this afternoon. The water was down to approximately 2’, measured by a gentleman who drove his F350 through the water to see if he would be able to leave in the morning. Saturday morning is our departure from Alabama for a three hour trip to Westwego, LA, across the Mississippi River from New Orleans. I am looking forward to authentic Cajun cuisine along with beignets for desert.

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Friday morning started with yoga on the beach, followed by other fun activities including a presentation by the Act!vated Storytellers which Zachary and Carson participated, and then wacky science experiments making gooey slimy stuff in the afternoon. The kids enjoyed making the gooey science experiments and it was neat making a solid turned to a liquid just by holding it in your hand. Friday night we enjoyed a pot luck dinner and watching a video of the families that were visiting the rally. The kids had more time to play and we enjoyed socializing too.

Saturday brought more fun including tie dying t-shirts and relay races on the beach. We had surprise visit from the Loeckin family whom we had been following their blog for over a year as they traveled the US doing random acts of kindness as they traveled. Jay, Beth and their family spent the afternoon with us and the other families and enjoyed the relay races on the beach. It was nice getting to meet them since their adventures sparked our interest in traveling in 2008. Even the rain on Saturday night could not keep us indoors since it was the premier of the move RV which we could all relate to at least one situation that Robin Williams faced in the movie. After the movie Zachary was invited by Kimberly and Dennis (the Act!vated Storytellers) to take part in a pod cast with which he narrated as three separate characters, Carson was too tired to participate and he was asleep before Zachary came in that night.

Sunday morning started with delicious pancakes along with eggs and fruit. The kids ran around spending time with all the new friends they had made over the weekend. The adults exchanged email addresses, phone numbers and website addresses, so that traveling experiences can be discussed after the rally. Most everyone was scheduled to leave for other destinations but we decided to stay a couple of extra days to enjoy the warm weather in Florida and leave on Tuesday morning for a meeting with one of our vendors in Orlando. By mid afternoon most everyone was gone except 3-4 families and the campground was much more quiet without all the kids running around. Sunday afternoon was a nice lazy afternoon sitting outside watching the cruise ships pass by heading out to sea. The kids decided that they wanted to take a Disney cruise, maybe when we finish traveling.

On Monday it was almost sad that most of our new friends were gone the boys had a few kids left to play with and we sat outside sharing stories on our adventures for the past 7 months. Monday night we decided to so we decided on one last “get together” before we left on Tuesday morning, so we setup the projector and played a movie on the side of the motor home complete with Monkey Munch, popcorn, and Coke with the Browski and DeMichiel families that were also staying until Tuesday. The rally was a great success thanks to Katie Evans & Kimberly Goza who have years of traveling experiences and lots of advice for a “newbie” family such as us. We will definitely keep in touch with many of the families while we travel and hopefully we can meet again in the future. We decided that our travels would definitely be more enjoyable spending time with other traveling families.

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